{"id":873,"date":"2008-11-24T15:03:36","date_gmt":"2008-11-24T22:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/24\/self-awareness\/"},"modified":"2018-04-03T08:26:03","modified_gmt":"2018-04-03T15:26:03","slug":"self-awareness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/24\/self-awareness\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I think the biggest key to productivity (and all self-improvement) is one that doesn\u2019t get talked about: knowing what makes you tick.\u00c2\u00a0 Being organized and having a great day planner is great, but it doesn\u2019t get things done.\u00c2\u00a0 Self-awareness allows you to work around your weaknesses.<\/p>\n<p>Self-awareness is a lofty word thrown around so often it\u2019s started to lose meaning.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u2019d like to focus on practical self-awareness, namely:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Why you do what you do.<\/li>\n<li>More importantly, why do you fail to do what you set out to do.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I like to emphasize the last point because I get a lot of reader feedback about it.\u00c2\u00a0 Many emails I get start with the person describing all the things they\u2019ve failed to accomplish.\u00c2\u00a0 The intention is definitely there, and in many cases, the will is there too.\u00c2\u00a0 But something is holding them back.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t want to sound preachy about this, because everyday I go through the exact same process.\u00c2\u00a0 I accomplish some things, but often I fail to do the things I want to do.\u00c2\u00a0 I think the dividing line between achievers and non-achievers is that achievers recognize those failures, find the underlying problems, and figure out how to work around them.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequent Hiccups are More Dangerous Than Huge Mistakes<\/h2>\n<p align=\"left\">Blogging friend <a href=\"http:\/\/ben.casnocha.com\">Ben Casnocha<\/a> has said that he doesn\u2019t like to ask a person about their \u201cbiggest failures\u201d.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, he likes to ask them about frequent failures, or the mistakes they make repeatedly.\u00c2\u00a0 I fully agree with this line of reasoning.<\/p>\n<p>Frequent failures are deceptive because, although they may not cause problems individually, they add up to disasters.\u00c2\u00a0 The millionaire who loses $100,000 on a bad investment pays a huge price for that mistake.\u00c2\u00a0 But losing that much isn\u2019t permanent, and she will probably recover soon.<\/p>\n<p>However, let\u2019s say you\u2019re a person who can\u2019t wake up on time in the morning.\u00c2\u00a0 This means you\u2019re always 30 minutes behind at the start of most days.\u00c2\u00a0 Individually, missing your alarm clock will have few penalties.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you add up all the missed opportunities of procrastinating over several years, it would be much worse than the $100,000 lost.<\/p>\n<p>People with self-awareness will still make big mistakes.\u00c2\u00a0 These mistakes are often inevitable, since you never have perfect information.\u00c2\u00a0 Often these accidents will teach important lessons that prevent them from happening again.\u00c2\u00a0 It sucks to go bankrupt, break up or lose a business, but it\u2019s not permanent.<\/p>\n<p>But if you lack self-awareness, you probably have a lot of frequent mistakes that aren\u2019t addressed.\u00c2\u00a0 Procrastination, chronic lateness or being unable to motivate yourself are all recurring problems that silently add up.<\/p>\n<h2>The Truth Hurts<\/h2>\n<p>Self-awareness isn\u2019t a trip into positive thinking.\u00c2\u00a0 Although you can turn it around to make new solutions, it needs to start by recognizing your shortcomings.\u00c2\u00a0 And recognizing your shortcomings doesn\u2019t feel great.<\/p>\n<p>Every habit change I\u2019ve made successfully started with this uncomfortable recognizing step.\u00c2\u00a0 A step where I realized that how I was acting wasn\u2019t who I wanted to be.\u00c2\u00a0 This can be simple, like looking around a chaotic room and realizing you\u2019re too messy.\u00c2\u00a0 Or it can be difficult, like looking around your social calendar and realizing you have no close friends.<\/p>\n<p>If you skip the painful self-awareness step, then you won\u2019t change.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem doesn\u2019t have an emotional impact, so you\u2019ll give up as soon as things get hard.<\/p>\n<h2>Find the Simplified Problem<\/h2>\n<p>Some people take the truth-swallowing step, and never do anything with it.\u00c2\u00a0 So they\u2019re stuck feeling miserable, but nothing is improving.\u00c2\u00a0 Once you\u2019ve found the problem, you need to reduce it into something that you can handle.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you\u2019re out of shape, and you want to be healthier.\u00c2\u00a0 But, you\u2019ve failed at all your attempts to diet or exercise more.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u2019ve recognized this shortcoming (being able to change your diet), now you need to simplify it.\u00c2\u00a0 Here are some questions you could ask:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Is the problem motivation?<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Do you feel you should be healthier, or do you really want it?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Is the problem your habits?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Is the problem your approach?<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0 Should you try a different diet, or find exercise that you\u2019ll be passionate about?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Simplifying the problem helps you solve it.\u00c2\u00a0 When you have a big, complex issue, you can\u2019t act on any solutions.\u00c2\u00a0 Every problem seems unsolvable if it\u2019s too complicated.\u00c2\u00a0 Simplifying it down to one or two general problems can give you an approach to solve it.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes the simplification won\u2019t work.\u00c2\u00a0 You\u2019ll try tackling your health and exercise through habit changes and nothing sticks.\u00c2\u00a0 In that case, you simplified it the wrong way.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at the issue again and try a different direction.\u00c2\u00a0 Self-awareness is essentially your skill at boiling down complex problems to their key parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I think the biggest key to productivity (and all self-improvement) is one that doesn\u2019t get talked about: knowing what makes you tick.\u00c2\u00a0 Being organized and having a great day planner is great, but it doesn\u2019t get things done.\u00c2\u00a0 Self-awareness allows you to work around your weaknesses. Self-awareness is a lofty word thrown around so often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,680],"tags":[26,38,252],"class_list":{"0":"post-873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-goal-setting","7":"category-nc-productivity","8":"tag-goals","9":"tag-productivity","10":"tag-self-awareness","11":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Self-Awareness - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/24\/self-awareness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Self-Awareness - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I think the biggest key to productivity (and all self-improvement) is one that doesn\u2019t get talked about: knowing what makes you tick.\u00c2\u00a0 Being organized and having a great day planner is great, but it doesn\u2019t get things done.\u00c2\u00a0 Self-awareness allows you to work around your weaknesses. 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